Bitcoin and many other cryptoassets resumed their rebound from the broad market sell-off earlier in the week, with BTC briefly reclaiming $62,000 this morning. Risk assets had experienced significant losses, but this recent recovery marks a positive turn, reflecting renewed investor confidence. This was further evidenced by institutional investors, who demonstrated limited to no de-risking in bitcoin futures despite the recent market volatility, according to a JPMorgan report. On Monday, global markets experienced extreme volatility due to the unwinding of the Japanese Yen carry trade over the weekend. The yen’s recent strong performance, rising almost 10% against the USD within three weeks, triggered the unwinding of carry trades, contributing to the sell-off in risk assets such as equities and cryptoassets. This broad market sell-off saw BTC dipping below $50,000 for the first time since February, while ETH dropped below $2,200. By Monday, DeFi liquidations had hit an annual 24-hour high of about $400 million amid the market turbulence.
The sharp drop in cryptoassets was partly driven by major players like Jump Crypto. On Sunday, just before the chaotic start to the trading week, blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence observed that Jump Crypto had begun moving significant portions of its $243 million worth of crypto, including a sizable stash of ETH, with some of it heading for exchanges. Jump’s ether balance now sits just above $15 million, having increased by $1 million in the past day. Meanwhile, ETH continues to underperform compared to other major cryptoassets like Bitcoin and Solana, with the ETH-to-BTC ratio hovering around 0.043, just above its annual low of 0.041. This underperformance is partly driven by ongoing sell pressure from spot ether ETFs, with Grayscale’s ETH ETF (formerly Grayscale Ethereum Trust, or ETHE) outflows exceeding inflows in other US ETH ETFs. On a positive note, ETH managed to hit $2,700 on Friday morning as the crypto market continued to recover ground lost during Monday’s crash.
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $2.2 trillion – down from $2.4 trillion last week, with bitcoin accounting for more than 54%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, XRP outperformed, gaining about 4.5% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) fell by 5.3% to $60,298 while the price of ether (ETH) decreased by 15.7% to $2,584. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at $83.5 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) accounting for about 58% of TVL. Arbitrum One is currently the largest Layer 2 by value locked, accounting for 40.5% of the $37 billion in assets.
This Week’s Headlines
- Ripple fined $125 million, court denies SEC’s proposed $2 billion fine
- Judge approves $12.7 billion settlement between FTX and CFTC, bringing 20-month-long lawsuit to an end
- David Plouffe, DC insider with deep crypto ties, to join VP Harris’ campaign team, Reuters reports
- Sen. Warren and other Democrats press CFTC to promptly finalize banning of political event contracts amid Polymarket boom
- Fed issues an enforcement action against Customers Bancorp citing issues with risk management and compliance with AML laws
- Franklin Templeton‘s on-chain money market fund launches on Arbitrum
- Bitcoin miner Core Scientific reports $805 million net loss in Q2
- London-based hedge fund Capula Management reveals $420 million in Bitcoin ETF Investments
- IMF explores bitcoin risk management strategies with El Salvador
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- WiFi provider Andrena raises $18 million to offer decentralized broadband
- Cartridge raises $7.5 million in funding for on-chain game development
- Web3 game studio Curio raises $5.7 million in seed funding
- Decentralized solvers protocol Khalani raises $2.5 million in a seed round
- Japanese venture firm Metaplanet looks to raise roughly $68 million (¥10 billion) to buy more bitcoin
